April 2, 2025

AI & The Fed: Is Hiring Changing?

AI & The Fed: Is Hiring Changing?
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As economic conditions shift, financial institutions must adapt their lending strategies to balance growth, risk, and liquidity. A "Slow and Grow " approach is emerging as a sustainable way to navigate today’s market while expanding financial services.

This week, host Lynn Sautter Beal welcomes Joseph Mayans, Chief Economist at Experian North America, to discuss the key economic drivers impacting lending in 2025 live at the CBA conference. They dive into the current state of the economy, including inflation, policy uncertainties and the evolving global landscape. Plus, they explore new lending opportunities in the auto and small business sectors and offeractionable insights on how lenders can remain adaptable to thrive in the coming years.
Join us as we discuss:

  • How inflation and policy changes will impact lending strategies
  • The future of auto and small business lending opportunities
  • Navigating economic uncertainty while balancing growth and risk
  • Expert strategies to stay adaptable in a rapidly shifting market
WEBVTT

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Hi everyone, and welcome to Leaders in Lending. I am

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Lynn Saarbiel, and I'm joining you today from CBA Live

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with Joseph Mainz from Experience. Joseph, do you want to

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talk a little bit about your background and your role

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as chief Economists Experience.

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Yeah, thank you, Lynn, and thank you for having me back.

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So yeah, I'm the chief Economists i Experience North America.

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So just roughly what I do. I spend probably about

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seventy percent of my time doing external work with our

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clients and our partners. Give a lot of presentation speak

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with probably one hundred and twenty organizations a year, all

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across is kind of the financial system ecosystem, from the

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largest banks to fintech's credit unions. I also spend the

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rest of my time I report up to the North

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America Strategy Team, and so I also do a lot

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of work working internally with our strategic finance, our finance team,

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strategy team, thinking about kind of those major pivots in

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the economy that may be material for our business as well.

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Well.

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Great, well, I know we did this conversation last year,

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so it's great to have you have you back on

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the podcast. I think you know heading into into your end,

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felt that the economy was maybe a little more resilient

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than expected and that you know, term recession concerns were

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starting to ease. But now I think we're we're certainly

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seeing some more uncertainty increase, and especially with different things

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going on in the world. So what indicators are you

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watching that could signal shifts as we kind of move

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into twenty twenty five.

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Yeah, so I think there's a couple of things.

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So you're absolutely right when we you know, coming out

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of twenty twenty four, the economy really had had solid momentum.

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You know, overall economic activity was doing really well, labor

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market pretty solid, spending pretty solid. But you know, there

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were some trends and I can talk about them in

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a little bit, there were some trends that gave some

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kind of a heads up that we may be entering

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a little bit of a slower period. And then on

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top of that, then we got hit with all Now

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we have a lot of obviously policy uncertainty coming out

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of DC. Some of that exactly, you know, kind of

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further perpetuate some of the slowing trends that we did see.

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But overall, you're right, solid momentum.

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So what I'm really looking at right now, you know,

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I think there's a couple of ways to think about it.

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So top of mind for me at the moment is

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everything that's going on with trade in tariff policy, and

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so really I think about it as you know, kind

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of affecting two different channels. When you have the kind

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of the inflationary aspect, the impact that it's going to

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have on the FED, I think, you know, we can

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hit on that too, But definitely I think higher tariffs

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are likely to lead to higher prices. One of the

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questions is how long and how persistent you know that

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those price changes may be. But either way, it's probably

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going to cause the FED to be more cautious in

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the short run. But what I'm honestly a little more

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concerned at the moment is kind of the uncertainty that

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this is driving in the broader economy, especially for things

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like business investment and consumer spending. So that's actually a

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segment that I'm a little more concerned about at the

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moment than even the inflationary impacts.

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Yeah, you do you think, you know, going into kind

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of what we're seeing, this persistent inflation and higher for

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longer rates. Do you think the FED has really the

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right tools to kind of balance the growth and stability, Like,

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do they have enough kind of dry powder do influence

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according to their mandate?

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So the FED is stuck.

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They're stuck in a little bit between a rock and

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a hard place at the moment, just because you know,

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and inflation was already proving to be more stubborn than

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they would like to see even coming into the end

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of twenty twenty four, and now you look at the tariffs. Definitely,

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if it doesn't drive inflation, highers at least going to

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keep inflation where it is, which is above the Fed's target.

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I think for longer. I think the FED does have tools.

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Obviously, they have room in the federal funds rate to

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drop it phiry substantially if they if they need to.

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But it's definitely going to be a challenge, and I

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do think that this year they may have to make

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that choice if push comes to shove, what are you

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going to support You're going to try to make sure

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you keep inflation inder control, or you're going to try

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to support the labor market. My personal view is that

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they they'll support the labor market.

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So interesting, Yeah, I think that, you know, the certainly

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policy uncertainty and political changes are having a big impact.

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And I'm a big Twitter fan and write a fan

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as well, and I think everyone's an expert on tariffs

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right now after being experts and other things earlier this year.

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So you know, as you think about building forecasts for

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twenty twenty five, with so much uncertainty happening, and particularly

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like regulatory uncertainty and policy uncertainty, how do you think

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about factoring that into your forecasts of what you are

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projecting in it experience?

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Yeah, so you know, it is very difficult at the

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moment when you look at kind of of the I

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don't think you can just pick out one policy aspect

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at a time when it's just tariffs or immigration or

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spending cuts or you know, tax cuts or deregulation.

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It's really the package deal. But how I am thinking

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about it is you have the short run impacts. So

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you know, we have tariffs, we're.

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Having, you know, shifts in immigration policy, You're having you know,

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federal government layoffs, you have some some spending cutbacks, and

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so I think I think about really in the short

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term those things are very those things way heavy in

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the next six to twelve months, and then I think

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the tax cuts and the the deregulation, those impacts will

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probably come later. So really, when I'm looking at the forecast,

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I'm looking at that tariffs, you know, job cuts, those

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things in the short run, and I think if you

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look at the short run, it's it's clear that it's

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likely going to weigh on growth, likely going to weigh

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on the labor markets.

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And I do think that that's.

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One reason why you know, the market in general, if

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you you know, if you go back to December, the

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FED was projecting two rate cuts this year. I actually

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think that's a pretty good baseline. I know, recently there's

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been kind of a split, you know, some economists saying, oh, look,

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we got it. The Fed's gonna be very focused on

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the inflationary picture because the tariff's going to keep them.

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Cautious for longer.

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We may get one cut, we may get no cuts.

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On the other side of the thing, you look at,

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you know, market pricing of rate cuts this year.

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Now they're up to maybe like three cuts.

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My general view at the moment is if we look

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at that, we think about kind of the near term risks.

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You know, if I were to take a bet whether

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the Fed's going to cut more than twice or less

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than twice. I think they may cut more than twice

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this year, and we can talk about maybe in a

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little bit, but some of the with the weaknesses and

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I think in the labor market that may may be

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showing up more readily for them.

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Yeah, that's definitely. It's going to be an interesting, interesting time.

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And you know, every time I guess is unprecedented. But

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you know, I think the one thing we've seen though

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is consumer spending has remained pretty strong, and even though

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we've seen some dips and consumer confidence, you see spending

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is and reflecting that, Like what do you what do

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you think is driving that? And do you think with

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some of the changes to federal employees, cuts to federal agencies,

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do you think that that's going to then trickle down

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into really how consumers are spending their dollars.

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Yeah, so I think there's a there's a couple of

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things there when I think about the strength of the consumer.

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So I've been generally and when I joined you last time,

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I've been more optimistic over the past couple of years

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than most economists, and that's just because I had you know,

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conviction that the consumer was both able and willing to

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continue to spend. But some of those dynamics that that

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drove me to that conviction have really been kind of

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fading over the past year.

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So one of one of the.

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Biggest drivers, you know, twenty twenty three, early twenty twenty four,

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really strong personal income growth when adjusted for inflation, rising

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at a solid pace. That is really that was really

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sort of spending. What you've really seen over especially the

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back half of twenty twenty four is a softening an

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overall income growth.

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So it's now.

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Running below the average that you saw prior to the pandemic,

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which now gives me some pause that you know how,

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I do think consumers will spend this year, but I

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don't think they'll have the quite as much ability to

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do so.

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But what you did see, though.

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In spite of even having incomes kind of fade a

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little bit into the back of the year, you did

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see spending growth remain very robust, honestly, And I think,

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what so this is kind of the second piece. One

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is that again, like I said, the income I think

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is softening a little more concerned about that. But the

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other piece is you have to think why was it

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that consumers were willing to, even in the face of

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their income growth softening a bit, they kept up spending growth. Actually,

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spending growth really was very solid through twenty twenty four,

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and spending growth.

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Was rising faster than income growth. You can't have that

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happen forever. But the question is why that happen.

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My view, it has very much to do with the

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you know, the net worth impact we've seen over the

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past couple of years. You know, your your home value

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goes up forty percent, your form K goes up forty percent,

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you feel more comfortable spending a.

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Larger portion of your income every month.

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But what we've seen recently, and I think especially since

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the you know, whether you want to call this a

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new trade war and extension of the prior trade war,

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but either way, all this uncertainty, you've definitely seen more

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of an impact. I think the sp five hundred entered

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a correction, and I think you're you're seeing more people

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probably cognizant now, well, maybe those things that have supported

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my spending of the past two years, maybe they're not

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doing so well. Maybe I may be cut back a

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little more now.

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Yeah, I think that's probably a good a good point

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that if you if you think you're going to make

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more next year, and if you keep seeing your investment

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balances go up, you may feel a little more confident,

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like yes I'll book that trip, Yes I'll buy that thing,

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Yes I'll start this home improvement project. So you know,

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as you think about then how that relates to lending,

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the credit environment, credit markets. I think we may have

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talked last year a little bit about real estate, and

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you know, rates had been super low for so long,

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and so this idea that people weren't going to, you know, move,

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you're not going to sell and walk away from a

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three percent or two percent mortgage, and that people were

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going to do more home improvements. And so now that

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rates have increased rather substantially and seemed to be pretty

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sticky both on the on the mortgage side, where do

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you see the opportunities maybe for lending or the credit markets,

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or what may be the kind of products or asset

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classes that are coming into favor in the current environment.

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Yeah, I think it's kind of interesting because, like we

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mentioned earlier, like the economy really came into twenty twenty

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five in a good place, and I think you can

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generally say that as well when looking at the credit environment.

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So you know you had seen really over the past

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since you know, late twenty twenty two, lending standards has

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tightened very substantially. Interest rates were high, but coming into

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the back end of twenty twenty four, you know, lending

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sentans were generally, at least for banks and the broader

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market were still tighting, but not tightly nearly.

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At the pace.

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And you did see some You did see some loosening,

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you know, large banks loosening, and autos you sell some

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loosening helocks. And I think what you can see like

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the pickup in lending and FinTechs. You know, we don't

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have an exact measure of linding standard tightness for FinTechs

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like we do with banks when the Senior Loan Off

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Survey comes out, but fintech's generally tightened lending standards earlier.

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I think maybe got a head of some of their

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delinquencies earlier. I mean I was listening to you, like

240
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I said, your earnings call. I think your CFO said

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peak defaultiness was early twenty twenty four, and that's what

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I hear from most most FinTechs. So I think coming

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into the back end of twenty twenty four, the credit

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environment was stabilizing into where you had more people, more

245
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market participants, starting thinking maybe I can step my toes

246
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in the water a little bit here Now as we

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enter twenty twenty five, obviously the uncertainty is challenging. But

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what I do think about some opportunities. You know, obviously

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there's there's a fog of uncertainty, so there's risk this

250
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year for sure. But when I think about opportunities, I

251
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think about some of the constraints that some lending segments have. Like,

252
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for instance, you can see it in the lending data

253
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of credit unions. You know, early on credit unions and

254
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during the pandemic, you know, they're big auto lender, made

255
00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:15.440
a lot of auto loans. Some of those auto loans

256
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are not performing I think as well as they expected,

257
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and so credit unions have pulled back from the auto

258
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lending space. We can see in our origination data. You

259
00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:27.960
can see it in the balance sheets of credit unions,

260
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and so that constraint started. Findex have started moving to auto.

261
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They're not huge in there, but they're starting to move in.

262
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And like I said earlier, big banks have it loosened.

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I think maybe three quarters in a row, lending standards

264
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for autos maybe moving a little more in there. So

265
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I think about opportunities like that, but using that kind

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of framework that some constraints that happened during the pandemic

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may open the door to other entrants. This year, I

268
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think about the same thing with business lending. So my

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general view this year is that the uncertainty may be

270
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most impactful to business lending. And the reason why I

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say that is if you look in the twenty eighteen

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twenty nineteen period, research shows that the rise and trade

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uncertainty caused banks to pull back from lending, not just

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to those firms that were impacted by tariffs, like, obviously

275
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you're going to be cautious if your manufacturer that you

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do business away with now their input costs on by

277
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fifty percent, are they going to be able to survive?

278
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Not only cautious there, but they raise interest rates. So

279
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it kind of basically in essence, just reduced the supply

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of lending that they were doing, but also businesses themselves

281
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pull back out of caution. But anyway, so banks pulled

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back in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen because.

283
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Of the prior trade war. Uncertainty now is higher than

284
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it was then. But the other thing is that banks

285
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during the pandemic era, when had all these deposits they

286
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didn't really have, they didn't know what to do with them,

287
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and so they bought a lot of longer dad securities,

288
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you know, a lot of mortgage backed securities, you know,

289
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tenue treasuries, those kind of things. As interest rates have

290
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risen in recent years, right the bond value goes down,

291
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and so now they have large kind of unrealized losses

292
00:14:12.679 --> 00:14:15.200
on their balance sheets. A lot of regional banks are

293
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still working through some of the commercial real estate portfolios

294
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that aren't performing really well, and so those constraints they're

295
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not like, I don't necessarily think them and themselves are

296
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not a risk at the moment. As long as interests,

297
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it's more of a function of interest rates. As long

298
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as interest rates remain high, it causes though a little

299
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bit of I don't know, additional caution on the balance sheet.

300
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Researcher does show that large unrealized losses, you know, other

301
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concerns on the balance sheet will cause institutions to pull

302
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back from lending or at least remain extra cautious in

303
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an environment of uncertainty, which is what you have now

304
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you so you have higher uncertainty to you now you

305
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have some of these balance she challenges at banks that

306
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may make them extra cautious. At the same time, business

307
00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:02.080
loan delinquent see is rising quite a bit faster than

308
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consumer delinquency, which again I think will cause that a

309
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little bit of a pullback.

310
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But what that means in terms of opportunity is so

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like right now, we were creating you know, north of

312
00:15:12.279 --> 00:15:16.000
four hundred thousand. Uh we have north of four hundred

313
00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:21.200
thousand new business starts or filings every month prior to

314
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the pandemic is like two hundred and eight thousand, So

315
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a significant more new businesses are being created, and many

316
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of them are very young businesses. And so that when

317
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I think about opportunities FinTechs, I think FinTechs are moving

318
00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:34.840
more into that space you lend, you know, have a

319
00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:36.399
lot of technology, a lot of data to lend to

320
00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:39.559
those kind of thin file new businesses. So I think, like,

321
00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:41.679
when I think about opportunities, I think about that where

322
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are some maybe market participants who has some constraints coming

323
00:15:44.440 --> 00:15:47.639
into this year may hold back be more cautious and

324
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what does that open the door for.

325
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Other market segments?

326
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Now? I think that you know, we did a a

327
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kind of small pilot into the small business lending space

328
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kind of early in the pandemic, and then for a

329
00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:03.879
variety of market reasons, decided to suspend that for a

330
00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:07.480
period and and have not had reopened our business lending.

331
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But we are seeing growth in in the auto space, uh,

332
00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:14.360
in the auto business, particularly in REFI at the moment,

333
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you know, certainly as you're talking about that as just

334
00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:20.200
thinking about just the sher complexity of the global environment

335
00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:23.879
and the even the political and economic environment just in

336
00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:26.600
the US, and as you think about you know, the

337
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maybe the regional banks, the community banks, the smaller lenders,

338
00:16:29.720 --> 00:16:33.799
and the credit unions, you know what, how do you know,

339
00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:37.480
what what would you suggest they do to to think

340
00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:40.600
about just all of these different levers that are moving

341
00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:42.840
in the market, and how to think about managing their

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portfolios and managing their business strategy, Like how how can

343
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they be at least most effective in understanding what may

344
00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:53.759
be happening out there and how it relates to their business.

345
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I think it's certainly a challenge, and so I don't

346
00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:56.759
know if there's a great answer.

347
00:16:56.919 --> 00:16:59.840
Yeah, I don't know if if there's there's definitely not

348
00:16:59.879 --> 00:17:01.519
a one size fits all. You know, when you start

349
00:17:01.559 --> 00:17:05.920
zooming into community banks and you know, credit those those

350
00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:09.240
organizations to operate more regionally, you know, those are very

351
00:17:09.319 --> 00:17:12.240
much Obviously there's a lot of different shifts happening right now,

352
00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:15.480
and I think, no doubt labor market is key to watch,

353
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but especially regentally, Like if you operate in the DC market,

354
00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:20.480
you're gonna have a little more stress now or are

355
00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:24.079
those markets that have large concentrations of uh, federal employees.

356
00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:26.599
That's that's definitely something to watch. Yeah.

357
00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:29.440
So you know, we talked a little bit about fintech

358
00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.000
and the opportunities for for FinTechs to kind of come

359
00:17:32.039 --> 00:17:33.960
into some of the spaces. You know, I think it

360
00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:36.160
is true that you know, and I've said this as

361
00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:38.039
somebody who used to work in banking before I worked

362
00:17:38.039 --> 00:17:42.799
in fintech, you you don't get fired for uh not

363
00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:46.079
taking risk in a bank. Uh that's it's a safe

364
00:17:46.079 --> 00:17:48.119
place to be unless you're on the trading side, and

365
00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:50.599
then then you could potentially lose your job for not

366
00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:53.119
taking risk. But you are incentivized to be more more

367
00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:54.920
risk averse, and on the fintech side you can be

368
00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:58.319
a little more uh more forward. Are there any other

369
00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:03.720
kind of technological in or maybe even changing consumer behaviors

370
00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:07.839
that you think that banks need to monitor closely as

371
00:18:07.880 --> 00:18:09.759
they're going into twenty twenty.

372
00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:12.160
Five, Well, one area, I do think.

373
00:18:13.079 --> 00:18:16.119
So one dynamic that's playing out in the economy right

374
00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:20.000
now is that really over the last year is you've

375
00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:25.359
seen one just a general weakness in hiring. So the

376
00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:28.559
overall hires rate is very low, and outside of the pandemic,

377
00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:31.480
it's near a decade low, and that just means that

378
00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:35.680
the labor market is.

379
00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:36.440
Not fast to absorb people who are looking for work.

380
00:18:36.759 --> 00:18:40.160
So whether you get laid off or you're coming off

381
00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:43.119
the sidelines looking for work, whether you're graduating college and

382
00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:45.279
now you're looking for work, so on and so forth,

383
00:18:45.640 --> 00:18:49.680
and that lack of absorption is actually the cause of

384
00:18:50.279 --> 00:18:55.039
most of the rise and overall unemployment, not necessarily layoffs.

385
00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:59.119
So when I think about technological change, I think specifically

386
00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:03.279
this dynamic, this low hiring rate is also happening a

387
00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:06.920
lot in the white collar, higher income segments. So you

388
00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:09.160
can see in the higher rate for those kind of industries.

389
00:19:09.559 --> 00:19:12.079
You can see it in people with bachelor's degree who are

390
00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:17.720
moving from unemployed to employ That rate is very, very low,

391
00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:19.440
and so it's okay if you have a job, not

392
00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:20.759
so great if you're looking for a job. So when

393
00:19:20.759 --> 00:19:23.799
I think technological advancement, I think about things like, Okay,

394
00:19:23.799 --> 00:19:26.000
what's going to play out in AI? How are companies

395
00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:29.920
going to take this up? And then my general view

396
00:19:29.960 --> 00:19:31.680
this year is that we could see the hiring rate

397
00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:35.319
remain generally fairly low this year, and then you have

398
00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:38.319
companies who are cautious about the environment, maybe saying, hey,

399
00:19:38.359 --> 00:19:41.240
instead of hiring the software engineer, let's see what we

400
00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:43.920
can do with AI here, and that perpetuates I think

401
00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:47.599
that could perpetuate a kind of labor market that's not

402
00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:48.839
great at absorbing people.

403
00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:49.680
But that's problem.

404
00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:51.880
That's one reason why I do think the FED may

405
00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:55.200
cut more than twice this year, because they realize that

406
00:19:55.400 --> 00:19:58.680
an environment that the labor market's not absorbing workers very quickly,

407
00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:01.200
that a large pick the layoffs could result in a

408
00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:03.160
very fast uptick in unemployment.

409
00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:06.680
No, I think, and we certainly see that. You know,

410
00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:09.880
in the teams that I manage, not that we are

411
00:20:10.039 --> 00:20:12.319
you know, we we can hire, and we are hiring

412
00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:14.839
as a company, but we're also saying, how can we

413
00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:17.559
use AI to be better and more efficient, more scalable

414
00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:19.839
the things that we're doing, and we're you know, I'm

415
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:23.359
implementing a couple different AI solutions and how we do

416
00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:26.480
diligence and how we do B to B customer support

417
00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:30.880
as we think about accelerating both the self serve capabilities,

418
00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:34.920
the accuracy, the efficiency and scalability. So I think that's

419
00:20:35.880 --> 00:20:39.039
definitely playing out across not just technology companies, but but

420
00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:43.079
a lot of kind of more legacy businesses that don't

421
00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:46.640
just want to keep keep growing on the on headcount. So,

422
00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:50.079
you know, as we look through into twenty twenty five,

423
00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:52.559
you know, we're already a quarter in to the year,

424
00:20:52.680 --> 00:20:57.319
so we've got three quarters left. You know, what what

425
00:20:57.400 --> 00:20:59.759
piece of advice would you offer to either lenders financial

426
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:03.480
institutions to think about navigating what's ahead this year?

427
00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:06.519
Yeah, I mean I think this year in particular, all

428
00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:08.799
I would say and is the advice that I try

429
00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:11.680
to take myself all the time, which is stay humble

430
00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:16.319
because and don't cling too strictly to your assumptions, because

431
00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:18.599
I think in this kind of environment, things can change

432
00:21:19.799 --> 00:21:22.400
very rapidly in one direction another, either for the negative

433
00:21:22.759 --> 00:21:23.480
or for the positive.

434
00:21:23.480 --> 00:21:24.400
Even great.

435
00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:26.400
Yeah, and I think we even saw that reflected in

436
00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:29.920
the questions we'd prepared for this session, where had a

437
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:33.039
much more robust Jago economy and now it's a little

438
00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:36.759
more uncertainty coming into the year. Well, anyways, Joseph really

439
00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:39.559
appreciate you having on the podcast again. Thanks for taking

440
00:21:39.559 --> 00:21:42.000
time to share your insights with us as thank you.

441
00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:42.720
Lane